Music - A New Energy

I was looking up some of the new music today and realized that I had not heard any of the new numbers. Iyaz, Cheryl Cole (for all the wrong reasons), Dave Guetta, Gorillaz, Gypsy etc. I have not heard of most of the singers and groups. I made an effort and heard a couple and then went back to listen to some of my old favourites that I have not heard for a long time. Listening to 'I will survive', 'Love is a battlefield', 'Heart of Glass' and some Beatles numbers like 'I saw her standing there' transported me straight back to the eighties.

Beatles
Each song has a special memory attached to it. A person, a smell and most importantly a feeling. 'I saw her standing there' makes me move much like all Beatles songs do. Reminds me of the times in the Osmania University Engineering College when I was just discovering the full range of music. I would experiment it on my pals Choudary, Subbu, Sanjay and Ali who listened to the songs faithfully and sang out their versions on dark nights. I remember buying a Beatles tape and singing out all those songs aloud to my pals. The special visual was of all of us walking across the Nagarjuna Sagar dam in a straight line one after another in the setting sun, at the end of an excursion, the Beatles tape playing in Subbu's small tape player. One of those moments when no one said anything and we just walked along, listening to Lennon and McCartney. Magic!

Love is a battlefield
'Love is a battlefield' by Pat Benatar reminds me of the cassette I bought in Chennai, an assorted one called Music Hits 1982 or something like that (I have it somewhere). One of those many cassettes I'd buy during our cricketing trips. I'd save up all the money I could during the trip and buy cassettes on the last day, mostly accompanied by Vidyuth who'd guide me on the songs. It was the last song on side B I remember and boy, was she a discovery. I played it loud and sang along with Pat Benatar - agreeing wholeheartedly with her opinion on love. Remember sharing this song with Naresh and of our long telephone conversations that revolved around music.

Blondie
'Heart of Glass' by Blondie has a special memory. It happened completely by accident because I heard it on somebody else's cassette player. It was one of Kamalakar's collection at Warangal I think. 1982! Boy, did I love that song. And I played it again and again and again and again until I was told by a worried owner that it might spoil the tape and the player. Unfortunately despite my valiant efforts to lay my hands on Blondie tapes I could not get this one. Not in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad. I got one though - it had 'Call me' - another song I loved. 'Heart of Glass' is a very private memory because I never ran into anyone who loved Blondie specially. I was in love with that voice - I mean, really in love.

I will survive
And that brings me to 'I will survive', a song I heard many times and never possessed. I loved the song (every time I heard it), but never got to know who sang it or what the name of the song was - a most frustrating state to be in. Only recently when I saw 'Rock On' and saw Purab Kohli sway away to a full throated rendition of this song did I make an effort to find out who sang this song and what it was called.

And there must be some 2-3 thousand songs like that with a special memory attached to them. I will write them down as my tribute to all those who shared my music with me.